Claudio Abbado - Overview | Deutsche Grammophon

The world-renowned conductor Claudio Abbado recorded for Deutsche Grammophon over the course of four decades, making countless landmark albums which sound as fresh as ever today. In honour of his exceptional career, DG is releasing a strictly limited and hand-numbered edition of Abbado’s complete recordings for the Yellow Label, Decca and Philips. Encompassing an enormous range of repertoire, the edition includes hundreds of the acclaimed performances the conductor inspired from some of the world’s greatest artists and orchestras.

Accompanying the limited 257-CD & 8-DVD edition are 16 digital albums presenting these same recordings, gathering Abbado’s complete recordings per composer. Listen to our latest digital release of Claudio Abbado’s complete recordings of music by Verdi.

Enjoy Claudio Abbado conducting his legendary recording of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1971), remastered in HD and available now digitally and on Blu-ray Audio disc. Hermann Prey leads a star cast including Teresa Berganza and Luigi Alva. A DVD Video of the 1972 video production directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle is included with the CD- and Blu-ray Audio disc set.

Watch Claudio Abbado inspire and exhort the Berliner Philharmoniker to maximum effect in Beethoven’s 6th symphony. The video can be found in the video collection in this page. You can watch all Abbado’s interpretations of Beethoven symphonies with the Berliner Philharmoniker on DG, filmed at performances in Rome in 2001.

Claudio Abbado recorded two remarkable albums of Wagner’s music with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Watch Bryn Terfel in the collection of videos in this page singing Wagner in rehearsal with Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker for a concert in Berlin in November 2000. The aria, “Die Frist ist um” from Der Fliegende Holländer was recorded as part of a whole audio album of Wagner arias sung by Bryn Terfel.

Carmen! Watch Claudio Abbado in the video selection in this page so obviously enjoying conducting a gala performance of the overture to Bizet’s opera with the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1997.

Claudio Abbado’s 2001 recording of Verdi’s Falstaff features Bryn Terfel, who stars in the title role, as well as Thomas Hampson and Adrianne Pieczonka, accompanied by the Berlin Philharmoniker. This recording showcases the skill and artistry of some of the greatest performers of our time, bringing Verdi’s beloved opera to life with unparalleled vivacity, humor, and lyricism.

Watch Claudio Abbado and Yuja Wang perform the extraordinary virtuosic music of Prokofiev’s 3rd piano concerto in the clip in the video selection in this page. The excerpt is taken from our visual album of their concert together at the Lucerne Festival 2009.

Enjoy Claudio Abbado performing Tchaikovsky’s polonaise from his opera ‘Eugene Onegin’ in the video selection in this page. He conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker. The excerpt is taken from our visual of his 1998 Berlin Gala below, which is also available as an audio album.

Claudio Abbado’s special gift was to inspire the musicians he collaborated with for many memorable and joint interpretations. A highlight of his relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker was a recording of Mahler’s 5th symphony, which is now available for the first time on vinyl.

Claudio Abbado and Martha Argerich were a partnership that ran across the decades, including in terms of their recordings for DG. You can now hear their 1994 interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Philharmoniker in the high-quality spatial listening experience of Dolby Atmos®.

Watch the clip in the video selection in this page of Claudio Abbado conducting a rousing performance of Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole with the Berliner Philharmoniker. The excerpt here is taken from the 4th mvt ‘Feria’, part of a full performance of Rapsodie Espagnole that you can hear as part of our audio album of the Berlin Gala 1997 featured below.

The world-renowned conductor Claudio Abbado recorded for Deutsche Grammophon over the course of four decades, making countless landmark albums which sound as fresh as ever today. In honour of his exceptional career, DG is releasing a strictly limited and hand-numbered edition of Abbado’s complete recordings for the Yellow Label, Decca and Philips. Encompassing an enormous range of repertoire, the edition includes hundreds of the acclaimed performances the conductor inspired from some of the world’s greatest artists and orchestras.

Claudio Abbado – The Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon & Decca is set for release on 17 February 2023, in time to mark what would have been his 90th birthday in June 2023. Just 2650 copies of this unique 257‑CD and 8-DVD set, housed in beautifully designed packaging, will be issued.

Unquestionably one of the most multifaceted and influential musicians of recent times, Abbado was as much at home in the concert hall as he was in the opera house. He both championed new music and kept up with the latest developments in historical performance practice, while not swayed by some of its more dogmatic ideas. He summed up his philosophy as follows: “the term ‘great conductor’ has no meaning for me – it is the composer who is great”. This was no empty rhetoric. After meticulous preparation, involving the consultation of original sources, he almost always conducted from memory.

A team player rather than an authoritarian figure, Abbado was quick to establish a rapport with his musicians, both on and off stage. He rejuvenated the Berliner Philharmoniker in the post-Karajan years, and devoted much of his time and energy to founding new ensembles, including the European Community Youth Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Orchestra Mozart, as well as acting as mentor to individuals such as Gustavo Dudamel. With its vast scope, this edition offers unparalleled access to the many and varied strands of Abbado’s long career.

The maestro was a man of few words and preferred to let his gestures do the talking. This was as true in the studio as it was on the concert podium. “One of Claudio’s main interests was the pursuit of beauty of sound,” recalls DG producer Christopher Alder, who worked with the conductor between 1986 and 2006. That beauty is to be heard in abundance here, in finely-crafted performances spanning everything from Baroque works by Vivaldi, Bach and Pergolesi, to contemporary music by Xenakis, Nono and Salvatore Sciarrino. In between, we find a vast number of works by Mozart, the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Mahler, and much more besides.

Abbado was also one of the most respected opera conductors of his day, Music Director of both La Scala and the Vienna Staatsoper at different times in his career. That aspect of his work is generously reflected as well, in both full operas and excerpts. There are works by Mozart, Rossini and Verdi – the cornerstones of his operatic legacy – but Lohengrin, Pelléas et Mélisande and Wozzeck, among others, feature too. On DVD, moreover, we find La Cenerentola, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Janáček’s From the House of the Dead (here enjoying its first release on DVD). The other DVD content includes such treats as Peter and the Wolf with Sting/Roberto Benigni, and the 1991 Wiener Philharmoniker New Year’s Concert.

Abbado’s work with the Berliner Philharmoniker, of which he was chief conductor from 1990 to 2002 rightfully occupies a central place in this set, featuring on 60 of its 257 CDs. Not only did he expand the orchestra’s repertoire, he brought a renewed warmth and flexibility to its sound. He is also heard at the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he became principal conductor in 1979 and was music director from 1983 to 1986; Wiener Philharmoniker; Dresden Staatskapelle; Lucerne Festival Orchestra; Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester; and Orchestra Mozart, among others. In notes written especially for this edition, Alfred Brendel describes Abbado’s ability to get the best from any ensemble: “his attention towards bringing out the qualities of each player and blending them into a unique interpretive whole was exemplary and remains, in some ways, unique”.

The roster of singers and instrumentalists with whom Abbado recorded is equally impressive, ranging from Martha Argerich, Cecilia Bartoli and Alfred Brendel to Bryn Terfel and Yuja Wang, via Jonas Kaufmann, Evgeny Kissin and Gidon Kremer. Oboist Albrecht Mayer, who worked with him for years as a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker, says, “My work with Claudio and my personal dealings with him were without doubt the greatest gift I have received in the whole of my life as a musician.”

Claudio Abbado – The Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon & Decca is accompanied by one hardcover and two paperback books which provide eight essays on significant stages of Abbado’s career; reminiscences from his producers and colleagues; production dates and detailed tracklistings; numerous rare photos; and a foreword by the conductor’s four children, Daniele, Alessandra, Sebastian and Misha. The individual albums are presented in their original cover jackets, while the collection as a whole is presented in a high-quality library-style box.

As part of his contribution to this very special limited edition, pianist Evgeny Kissin finds the perfect words to sum up the legacy of Claudio Abbado. “The great maestro’s art will undoubtedly live and continue to bring joy to many millions of people, as long as mankind exists.”

Enjoy Claudio Abbado conducting the young musicians of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (founded on his initiative almost 40 years ago) in an excerpt from the first movement of Mahler’s 4th symphony to be found in the video shelf in this page. You can watch the full symphony as well as a performance of Schoenberg’s symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande, both filmed at the Vienna Musikverein in 2006, in our visual album.